Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 12649-h.htm or 12649-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/4/12649/12649-h/12649-h.htm)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/4/12649/12649-h.zip)
ANALYZING CHARACTER
The New Science of Judging Men; Misfits in Business, the Home
and Social Life
BY
KATHERINE M. H. BLACKFORD, M.D.
AND
ARTHUR NEWCOMB
1922
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
PART ONE--ANALYZING CHARACTER IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
CHAP.
I--CAUSES OF MISFITS 17
II--ELEMENTS OF FITNESS 39
III--CLASSES OF MISFITS 73
IV--THE PHYSICALLY FRAIL 111
V--THE FAT MAN 137
VI--THE MAN OF BONE AND MUSCLE 157
VII--SLAVES OF MACHINERY 169
VIII--THE IMPRACTICAL MAN 191
IX--HUNGRY FOR FAME 223
X--WASTE OF TALENT IN THE PROFESSIONS 241
XI--WOMEN'S WORK 261
XII--SPECIAL FORMS OF UNFITNESS 267
PART TWO--ANALYZING CHARACTER IN SELECTION OF EMPLOYEES
I--THE COST OF UNSCIENTIFIC SELECTION 291
II--THE SELECTION OF EXECUTIVES 303
III--THE REMEDY 331
IV--RESULTS OF SCIENTIFIC EMPLOYMENT 345
V--IDEAL EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS 359
PART THREE--ANALYZING CHARACTER IN PERSUASION
I--THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSUASION 367
II--SECURING FAVORABLE ATTENTION 383
III--AROUSING INTEREST AND CREATING DESIRE 391
IV--INDUCING DECISION AND ACTION 401
V--EFFICIENT AND SATISFACTORY SERVICE 413
PART FOUR--PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CHARACTER ANALYSIS
I--THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF CHARACTER ANALYSIS 429
II--HOW TO LEARN AND APPLY THE SCIENCE OF CHARACTER ANALYSIS 443
III--USES OF CHARACTER ANALYSIS 453
APPENDIX
REQUIREMENTS OF THE PRINCIPAL VOCATIONS 465
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
1. Jacob A Riis 53
2. Dr. Booker T. Washington 54
3. James H. Collins 55
4. H.G. Wells 56
5. Henry Ford 57
6. Hugo de Vries 58
7. Dr. Henry Van Dyke 59
8. Dr. Beverly T. Galloway 60
9. Richard Mansfield 125
10. Hon. A.L. Cutting (front) 126
11. Hon. A.L. Cutting (profile) 127
12. Chief Justice Melville Fuller 128
13. Frank A. Vanderlip 129
14. Hon. Joseph P. Folk 130
15. Hon. Nelson W. Aldrich 131
16. Well-Developed Base of Brain 132
17. Beaumont, Aviator 149
18. Lincoln Beachey 150
19. Col. George W. Goethals 151
20. Field Marshal von Hindenberg 152
21. Rear Admiral Frank E. Beatty 153
22. William Lloyd Garrison 154
23. Samuel Rea 155
24. Lon Wescott Beck 156
25. "Sydney Williams" (front) 197
26. "Sydney Williams" (profile) 198
27. Prof. Adolph von Menzel 199
28. Edgar Allan Poe 200
29. Samuel Taylor Coleridge 201
30. Thomas De Quincy 202
31. O. Henry at 30 203
32. Edwin Reynolds 204
33. John Masefield 229
34. Edward De Reszke 230
35. Puccini, Composer 231
36. John S. Sargent, R.A. 232
37. Pietro Mascagni 233
38. Richard Burton 234
39. Mendelssohn, Composer 235
40. Massenet, Composer 236
41. Hon. Elihu Root (Front) 253
42. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher 254
43. Rufus Isaacs, Baron Reading 255
44. Hon. Elihu Root (Profile) 256
45. Harland B. Howe 257
46. Justice Horace H. Lurton 258
47. Prof. William H. Burr 259
48. Hon. John Wesley Gaines 260
49. Hon. Joseph Walker 277
50. Hon. Lon V. Stephens 278
51. Hon. Oscar Underwood 279
52. Hon. Victor Murdock 280
53. Robert C. Ogden 281
54. Prof. P.G. Holden 282
55. W. Nelson Edelsten 283
56. Dr. Beverly T. Galloway (Profile) 284
57. Conical Hands 317
58. Hands of Mrs. Flora E. Durand 317
59. Hands of Financier and Administrator 318
60. Hands of Engineer and Expert Mechanic 318
61. Long Fingers 318
62. Narrow Head 319
63. Sir Henry Fowler 320
64. Reginald D. Barry 321
65. Large Dome Above Temples 322
66. Dr. V. Stefansson 323
67. Square Head 324
68. Round Head 324
PREFACE
This work is a treatise upon the fascinating and valuable art of analyzing
human character. It makes no attempt to teach, as such, the technical
principles upon which this art is based. It is, rather, an attempt to
familiarize the reader with the most important of these by the inductive
method--by means of incidents and descriptions from our records and from
the biographies of well-known men. Some effort has been made, also, to
give the reader the benefit of the authors' experience and observation in
vocational counsel, employment, and salesmanship.
In the preparation of this work, we have drawn copiously from our records
of individuals and firms. It should be borne in mind by the reader that,
for obvious reasons--except in one or two cases--the details of these
narratives have been so altered as to disguise the personalities and
enterprises involved, the essentials being maintained true to the record.
New York City, January 3, 1916. THE AUTHORS.
INTRODUCTION
"There is one name," says Elbert Hubbard, "that stands out in history like
a beacon light after all these twenty-five hundred years have passed, just
because the man had the sublime genius of discovering ability. That man is
Pericles. Pericles made Athens and to-day the very dust of the street of
Athens is being sifted and searched for relics and remnants of the things
made by people who were captained by men of ability who were discovered by
Pericles."
The remark of Andrew Carnegie that he won his success because he had the
knack of picking the right men has become a classic in current speech.
Augustus Caesar built up and extended the power of the Roman Empire
because he knew men. The careers of Charlemagne, Napoleon, Disraeli,
Washington, Lincoln, and all the empire builders and empire saviours hold
their places in history because these men knew how to recognize, how to
select, and how to develop to the highest degree the abilities of their
co-workers. The great editors, Greeley, Dana, James Gordon Bennett,
McClure, Gilder and Curtis, attained their high station in the world of
letters largely because of their ability to unearth men of genius. Morgan,
Rockefeller, Theodore N. Vail, James J. Hill, and other builders of
industrial and commercial empires laid strong their foundations by almost
infallible wisdom in the selection of lieutenants. Even in the world of
sports the names of Connie Mack, McGraw, Chance, Moran, Carrigan and
Stallings shine chiefly because of their keen judgment of human nature.
If the glory that was Greece shone forth because Pericles kindled its
flame, then Pericles in any time and amongst any people would probably
have ushered in a Golden Age. Had Carnegie lived in any other day and
sought his industrial giants, he would no doubt have found them. If a
supreme judge of latent talent and inspirer of high achievement can thus
always find material ready to his hand, it follows that humanity is rich
in undiscovered genius--that, in the race, there are, unguessed and
undeveloped, possibilities for a millennium of Golden Ages. Psychologists
tell us that only a very small percentage of the real ability and energy
of the average man is ever developed or used.
"Poor man!" says a reviewer, speaking of a contemporary, "he never
discovered his discoverer." The man who waits for his Pericles usually
waits in vain. There has been only one Pericles in all history. Great
geniuses in the discovery, development, and management of men are rare.
Most men never meet them. And yet every man can discover his discoverer.
Self-knowledge is the first step to self-development. Through an
understanding of his own aptitudes and talents one may find fullest
expression for the highest possibilities of his intellect and spirit. A
man who thus knows himself needs no other discoverer. The key to
self-knowledge is intelligent, scientific self-study.
In the year 1792, Mahmoud Effendi, a Turkish archer, hit a mark with an
arrow at 482 yards. His bow, arrows, thumb-ring and groove are still on
exhibition in London as proof of the feat. His prowess lay in his native
gift, trained by years of practice, to guess the power of his bow, the
weight and balance of his arrow, and the range and direction of his
target; also, the sweep of the wind. This he gained by observations
repeated until the information gathered from them amounted to almost exact
knowledge. Thousands of gunners to-day hit a mark miles away, with a
16-inch gun, not because they are good guessers, but because, by means of
science, they determine accurately all of the factors entering into the
flight of their projectiles. Pericles judged men by a shrewd guess--the
kind of guess called intuition. But such intuition is only a native gift
of keen observation, backed by good judgment, and trained by shrewd study
of large numbers of men until it becomes instinctively accurate.
In modern times we are learning not to depend upon mere guesses--no matter
how shrewd. Mahmoud Effendi could not pass on to others the art he had
acquired. But the science of gunnery can be taught to any man of average
intelligence and natural aptitudes. Pericles left posterity not one hint
about how to judge men--how to recognize ability. Humanity needs a
scientific method of judging men, so that any man of intelligence can
discover genius--or just native ability--in himself and others.
As the result of our ignorance, great possibilities lie undeveloped in
nearly all men. Self-expression is smothered in uncongenial toil. Parents
and teachers, groping in the dark, have long been training natural-born
artists to become mechanics, natural-born business men to become
musicians, and boys and girls with great aptitudes for agriculture and
horticulture to become college professors, lawyers, and doctors. Splendid
human talent, amounting in some cases to positive genius, is worse than
wasted as a result.
In our experience, covering years of careful investigation and the
examination of many thousands of individuals, we have seen so much of the
tragedy of the misfit that it seems at times almost universal. The records
of one thousand persons taken at random from our files show that 763, or
76.3 per cent, felt that they were in the wrong vocations. Of these 414
were thirty-five years old or older. Most of these, when questioned as to
why they had entered upon vocations for which they had so little natural
aptitude, stated that they had either drifted along lines of least
resistance or had been badly advised by parents, teachers, or employers.
We knew a wealthy father, deaf to all pleas from his children, who spent
thousands of dollars upon what he thought was a musical education for his
daughter, including several years in Europe. The young lady could not
become a musician. The aptitude for music was not in her. But she was
unusually talented in mathematics and appreciation of financial values,
and could have made a marked success had she been permitted to gratify her
constantly reiterated desire for a commercial career. This same father,
with the same obstinacy, insisted that his son go into business. The young
man was so passionately determined to make a career of music that he was
a complete failure in business and finally embezzled several thousand
dollars from his employer in the hope of making his escape to Europe and
securing a musical education. Here were two human lives of marked talent
as completely ruined and wasted as a well-intentioned but ignorant and
obstinate parent could accomplish that end.
A few years ago a young man was brought to us by his friends for advice.
He had been educated for the law and then inherited from his father a
considerable sum of money. Having no taste for the law and a repugnance
for anything like office work, he had never even attempted to begin
practice. Having nothing to do, he was becoming more and more dissipated,
and when we saw him first had lost confidence in himself and was utterly
discouraged. "I am useless in the world," he told us. "There is nothing I
can do." At our suggestion, he was finally encouraged to purchase land and
begin the scientific study and practice of horticulture. The last time we
saw him he was erect, ruddy, hard-muscled, and capable looking. Best of
all, his old, petulant, dissatisfied expression was gone. In its place was
the light of worthy achievement, success, and happiness. He told us there
were no finer fruit trees anywhere than his. Such incidents as this are
not rare--indeed, they are commonplace. We could recount them from our
records in great number. But every observant reader can supply many from
his own experience.
Thousands of young men and women are encouraged, every year, to enroll in
schools where they will spend time and money preparing themselves for
professions already overcrowded and for which a large majority of them
have no natural aptitudes. A prominent physician tells us that of the
forty-eight who were graduated from medical school with him, he considers
only three safe to consult upon medical subjects. Indeed, so great is the
need and so increasingly serious is it becoming, as our industrial and
commercial life grows more complex and the demand for conservation and
efficiency more exacting, that progressive men and women in our
universities and schools and elsewhere have undertaken a study of the
vocational problem and are earnestly working toward a solution of it in
vocational bureaus, vocational schools, and other ways, all together
comprising the vocational movement.
Roger W. Babson, in his book, "The Future of the Working Classes: Economic
Facts for Employers and Wage Earners," says: "The crowning work of an
economic educational system will be vocational guidance. One of the
greatest handicaps to all classes to-day is that 90 per cent of the people
have entered their present employment blindly and by chance, irrespective
of their fitness or opportunities. Of course, the law of supply and demand
is continually correcting these errors, but this readjusting causes most
of the world's disappointments and losses. Some day the schools of the
nation will be organized into a great reporting bureau on employment
opportunities and trade conditions, directing the youths of the nation--so
far as their qualifications warrant--into lines of work which then offer
the greatest opportunity. Only by such a system will each worker receive
the greatest income possible for himself, and also the greatest benefits
possible from the labors of all, thus continually increasing production
and yet avoiding overproduction in any single line." That the main
features of the system suggested by Mr. Babson are being made the basis of
the vocational movement is one of the most hopeful signs of the times.
Dr. George W. Jacoby, the neurologist, says: "It is scarcely too much to
say that the entire future happiness of a child depends upon the
successful bringing out of its capabilities. For upon that rests the
choice of its life work. A mistake in this choice destroys all the real
joy of living--it almost means a lost life."
Consider the stone wall against which the misfit batters his head:
He uses only his second rate, his third rate, or even less effective
mental and physical equipment. He is thus handicapped at the start in the
race against those using their best. He is like an athlete with weak legs,
but powerful arms and shoulders, trying to win a foot race instead of a
hand-over-hand rope-climbing contest.
Worse than his ineptitude, however, is the waste and atrophy of his best
powers through disuse. Thus the early settlers of the Coachela Valley
fought hunger and thirst while rivers of water ran away a few feet below
the surface of the richly fertile soil.
No wonder, then, that the misfit hates his work. And yet, his hate for it
is the real tragedy of his life.
Industry, like health, is normal. All healthy children, even men, are
active. Activity means growth and development. Inactivity means decay and
death. The man who has no useful work to do sometimes expresses himself in
wrong-doing and crime, for he has to do something industriously to live.
Even our so-called "idle rich" and leisure classes are strenuously active
in their attempts to amuse themselves.
When, therefore, a man hates his work, when he is dissatisfied and
discontented in it, when his work arouses him to destructive thoughts and
feelings, rather than constructive, there is something wrong, something
abnormal, and the abnormality is his attempt to do work for which he is
unfitted by natural aptitudes or by training.
The man who is trying to do work for which he is unfitted feels repressed,
baffled and defeated. He may not even guess his unfitness, but he does
feel its manifold effect. He lacks interest in his work and, therefore,
that most vital factor in personal efficiency--incentive. He cannot throw
himself into his work with a whole heart.
When Thomas A. Edison is bent upon realizing one of his ideas, his
absorption in his work exemplifies Emerson's dictum: "Nothing great was
ever accomplished without enthusiasm. The way of life is wonderful--it is
by abandonment." He shuts himself away from all interruption in his
laboratory; he works for hours oblivious of everything but his idea. Even
the demands of his body for food and sleep do not rise above the threshold
of consciousness.
Edison himself says that great achievement is a result, not of genius,
but of this kind of concentration in work--and, until the mediocre man has
worked as has Edison, he cannot prove the contrary. Mr. Edison has results
to prove the value of his way of working. Even our most expert
statisticians and mathematicians would find it difficult to calculate,
accurately, the amount of material wealth this one worker has added to
humanity's store. Of the unseen but higher values in culture, in
knowledge, in the spread of civilization, and in greater joy of living for
millions of people, there are even greater riches. Other men of the past
and present, in every phase of activity, have demonstrated that such an
utter abandonment to one's tasks is the keynote of efficiency and
achievement. But such abandonment is impossible to the man who is doing
work into which he cannot throw his best and greatest powers--which claims
only his poorest and weakest.
This man's very failure to achieve increases his unrest and unhappiness.
Walter Dill Scott, the psychologist, in his excellent book, "Increasing
Human Efficiency in Business," gives loyalty and concentration as two of
the important factors in human efficiency. But loyalty pre-supposes the
giving of a man's best. Concentration demands interest and enthusiasm.
These are products of a love of the work to be done.
The man employed at work for which he is unfit, therefore, finds it not a
means of self-expression, but a slow form of self-destruction. All this
wretchedness of spirit reacts directly upon the efficiency of the worker.
"A successful day is likely to be a restful one," says Professor
Scott,--"an unsuccessful day an exhausting one. The man who is greatly
interested in his work and who finds delight in overcoming the
difficulties of his calling is not likely to become so tired as the man
for whom the work is a burden.
"Victory in intercollegiate athletic events depends on will power and
physical endurance. This is particularly apparent in football. Frequently
it is not the team with the greater muscular development or speed of foot
that wins the victory, but the one with the more grit and perseverance. At
the conclusion of a game players are often unable to walk from the field
and need to be carried. Occasionally the winning team has actually worked
the harder and received the more serious injuries. Regardless of this
fact, it is usually true that the victorious team leaves the field less
jaded than the conquered team. Furthermore, the winners will report next
day refreshed and ready for further training, while the losers may require
several days to overcome the shock and exhaustion of their defeat.
"Recently I had a very hard contest at tennis. Some hours after the game I
was still too tired to do effective work. I wondered why, until I
remembered that I had been thoroughly beaten, and that, too, by an
opponent whom I felt I outclassed. I had been in the habit of playing even
harder contests and ordinarily with no discomfort--especially when
successful in winning the match.
"What I have found so apparent in physical exertion is equally true in
intellectual labor. Writing or research work which progresses
satisfactorily leaves me relatively fresh; unsuccessful efforts bring
their aftermath of weariness.
"_Intellectual work which is pleasant is stimulating and does not fag one,
while intellectual work which is uninteresting or displeasing is
depressing and exhausting_....
"To restore muscular and nerve cells is a very delicate process. So
wonderful is the human organism, however, that the process is carried on
perfectly without our consciousness or volition except under abnormal
conditions.
"Food and air are the first essentials of this restoration. In-directly
the perfect working of all the bodily organs contributes to the
process--especially deepened breathing, heightened pulse, and increase of
bodily volume due to the expansion of the blood vessels running just
beneath the skin.
"Here pleasure enters. Its effect on the expenditure of energy is to make
muscle and brain cells more available for consumption, and particularly to
hasten the process of restoration or recuperation.
"The deepened breathing supplies more air for the oxidation of body
wastes. The heightened pulse carries nourishment more rapidly to the
depleted tissues and relieves the tissues more rapidly from the poisonous
wastes produced by work. The body, the machine, runs more smoothly, and
few stops for repairs are made necessary.
"In addition to these specific functions, _pleasure hastens all the bodily
processes which are of advantage to the organism_. The hastening may be so
great that recuperation keeps pace with the consumption consequent on
efficient labor, with the result that there is little or no exhaustion.
This is, in physiological terms, the reason why a person can do more when
he 'enjoys' his work or play, and can continue his efforts for a longer
period without fatigue. The man who enjoys his work requires less time for
recreation and exercise, for his enjoyment recharges the storage battery
of energy."
But the misfit can take none of this pleasure in his work. He is unhappy
because he cannot do his best; he is wretched because he feels that he is
being defeated in the contest of life; he is miserable because he hates
the things he has to do; he can take no satisfaction in his work because
he feels that it is poorly done; and, finally, all of his joylessness
reacts upon him, decreasing his efficiency and making him a more pitiable
failure.
So this is the vicious circle:
Misfit;
Inefficient;
Unhappy;
More inefficient.
Rather is it a descending spiral, leading down to poverty, disease, crime
and death.
Now, consider the man who has found _his_ work. To him the glorious
abandonment which is the way to achievement is possible. Such a man does
not merely exist--he lives, and lives grandly. His work gives him joy,
both in its doing and in its results. It calls out and develops his
highest and best talents. He therefore grows in power, in wisdom, in
health, in efficiency, and in success. All his life runs in an ascending
spiral. No task appalls him. No difficulty daunts him. He may work
hard--terribly hard. He may tunnel through mountains of drudgery. He will
shun the easy ways and leave the soft jobs to weaker men. But through it
all there will be a song in his heart.
Work to such a man is as natural an expression as hunger, or love, or
pleasure, or laughter. He returns to it with zest and eagerness. Such a
man's work flows out from his soul. It is an expression of the divine in
him.
The almost universal cry for leisure is due to the almost universal
unfitness of men and women for their tasks. The wise man knows that there
is no happiness in leisure. The only happiness is self-expression in
useful work. And so we come again to the problem of fitting the man to his
work. Every man is a bundle of possibilities. Every man has a right to
usefulness, prosperity and happiness. These are possible only through
knowledge of self, knowledge of others, knowledge of work, and the ability
to make the right combination of self and others and work.
Man has learned much about the material universe. Nearly everything has
been analyzed and classified. Man weighs, measures, tests, and in others
ways scrupulously determines the fitness of every bit of material that
goes into a machine before it is built. There are scientific ways of
selecting cattle, horses, and even hogs for particular purposes.
Purchasing departments of great commercial and industrial institutions
maintain laboratories for the determination, with mathematical exactitude,
of the qualifications and fitness to requirements of all kinds of
materials, tools and equipment. And yet, when it comes to the choice of
his own life work, the guidance of his children in their vocations, or the
selection of employees and co-workers, the average man decides the entire
matter by almost any other consideration than scientifically determined
fitness. He takes counsel with personal prejudices, with customs and
traditions, with pride, or with fear--or he leaves the decision to mere
guess-work, or even chance.
It is time, therefore, that man should learn about himself and others,
and especially about those things which are vital to even a moderate
enjoyment of the good things of life.
Two diametrically opposite states of mind have been responsible for this
lack of careful study of the aptitudes, characteristics, and
qualifications of man and the ways of determining them in advance of
actual performance. The first of these has been characterized by loose
thinking, unscientific methods, arbitrary and complicated systems--- such
as palmistry, astrology, physiognomy, phrenology, and others of the same
ilk. In these systems, some truth, patiently learned by sincere and able
workers, has been befogged and contaminated by hasty conclusions of the
incompetent and clever lies of charlatans. Thus the whole subject has
fallen into disrepute with intelligent people. Ever since the earliest
days of recorded history there have been attempts at character reading.
Many different avenues of approach to the subject have been opened; some
by sincere and earnest men of scientific minds and scholarly attainments;
some by sincere and earnest but unscientific laymen; and some by
mountebanks and charlatans. As the result of all this study, research and
empiricism, a great mass of alleged facts about physical characteristics
has been accumulated. When we began our research seventeen years ago, we
found a very considerable library covering every phase of character
interpretation, both scientific and unscientific. A great deal has been
added since that time. 'Much of this literature is pseudo-scientific, and
some of it is pure quackery.
The second state of mind is a reaction from the first. Some men of science
are timid about accepting or stating anything in regard to character
analysis. They demand more than conclusive proof; what they insist upon is
mathematical accuracy. Until a man can be analyzed in such a way as to
leave nothing to common sense or good judgment, they hesitate to
acknowledge that he can be analyzed at all. But in the very nature of the
case, the science of character analysis cannot be a science in the same
sense in which chemistry and mathematics are sciences. So far our studies
and experiences do not lead us to expect that it ever can become absolute
and exact. Human nature is complicated by too many variables and obscured
by too much that is elusive and intangible. We cannot put a man on the
scales and determine that he has so many milligrams of common sense, or
apply the micrometer to him and say that he has so many millimetres of
financial ability. Human traits and human values are relative and can be
determined and stated only relatively. We shall, therefore, waste both
time and human values if we wait until our knowledge is mathematically
exact before we make it useful to ourselves and to others.
The sciences of medicine, agriculture, chemistry and physics are not yet
exact. They are in a state of development. We have, however, the good
sense to apply them so far as we know them, and to accept new discoveries,
new methods, and new ways of applying them, as they come to us. And so, in
the study of ourselves, let us throw aside traditions; let us forget the
mountebanks and charlatans of the past; let us not wait for the final work
of the mathematician; but, with plain common sense, let us apply such
knowledge as we have at hand. This knowledge should be the result of
careful observation, of a careful and prolonged study of all that science
has discovered in regard to man, his origin, his development, his history,
his body, and his mind. Every conclusion reached should be verified, not
in hundreds, but in thousands of cases, before it is finally accepted.
The perfection of such a science requires the united efforts of many
investigators, experimenters, and practical workers, such as teachers,
employers, social workers, parents, and men and women everywhere, each in
his own way and in the solution of his own problems. Were a uniform method
adopted and made a part of the vocational work of our social settlements,
our public schools, our colleges and universities, and other institutions,
also by private individuals in selecting their own vocations; were uniform
records to be made and every subject analyzed followed up, and his career
studied, we should, in one generation, have data from which any
intelligent, analytical mind could formulate a science of human analysis
very nearly approaching exactitude.
As a result of the application of such a uniform method, the principles of
human analysis would rapidly become a matter of common knowledge and could
be taught in our schools just as we to-day teach the principles of
chemical, botanical, or zoological analysis. In the industries, the
scientific selection, assignment and management of men have yielded
increases in efficiency from one hundred to one thousand per cent. The
majority of people that were dealt with were mature, with more or less
fixity of character and habits. Many of them were handicapped by iron-clad
limitations and restrictions in their affairs and in their environments.
What results may be possible when these methods, improved and developed by
a wider use, are applied to young people, with their plastic minds and
wonderful latent possibilities, we cannot even venture to forecast.
While we are accustomed to thinking of unfitness for our tasks as the one
form of maladjustment due to our ignorance of human nature in general and
individual traits in particular, there are other forms which, in their own
way, cause much trouble and the remedying of which leads to desirable
results. These are many and varied, but may be grouped, perhaps, most
conveniently under two or three general headings.
First, there is the relationship between employers and employees. The
disturbances and inharmony which mark this relationship, and have marked
it throughout human history, are due as much, perhaps, to misunderstanding
of human nature as to any one other cause. When employers select men
unfitted for their tasks, assign them to work in environments where they
are handicapped from the start, and associate them together and with
executives in combinations which are inherently inharmonious, it is
inevitable that trouble should follow.
The larger aspects of the employment problem are treated in the second
part of this book. Inasmuch, however, as the subject has been more fully
discussed in another volume,[1] no attempt is made to go into details.
Adjustment to environment means very largely the ability successfully to
associate with, cooperate with, and secure one's way among one's fellow
men. In order to be successful in life, we must first live on terms of
mutual cooperation with our parents; second, secure the best instruction
possible from our teachers; third, make social progress; fourth, secure
gainful employment, either from one employer, as in the case of the
laborer and the executive, or from several, as in the cases of
professional men. Having secured employment, our progress depends upon our
ability to attain promotion, to increase our business or our practice, to
add to our patrons. Salesmen must sell more, and more advantageously.
Attorneys must convince judges and juries, as well as obtain desired
testimony from witnesses. Preachers and other public speakers of all
classes must entertain, interest, arouse, and convince their audiences.
Writers must each appeal successfully to his particular public as well as
to his publisher. Engineers must establish and sustain successful
relationship with clients, employers, and employees.
In the third part of this book, therefore, we deal more or less at length
with the psychological processes of persuasion and their application in
various forms and to the varied personalities of those whom we wish to
persuade.
Finally, in the fourth part, we devote three chapters to a consideration
of the Science of Character Analysis by the Observational Method, the
principles of which underlie all of the observations and suggestions
appearing in the first three parts.
In presenting the material in this volume, our aim has been not to
propound a theory, but merely to make practical, for the use of our
readers, so far as possible, the results of our own experiences in this
field.
[Footnote 1: The Job, The Man, The Boss, by Katherine M.H. Blackford,
M.D., and Arthur Newcomb.]
PART ONE
ANALYZING CHARACTER IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
Analyzing Character
CHAPTER I
CAUSES OF MISFITS
"Blessed is the man who has found his work."--Carlyle.
Only the rarest kind of soul has a clear call to his vocation. Still rarer
is he who, knowing his work, can create circumstances which will permit
him to do it. Of the thousands of young people who have sought us for
counsel, only a very small percentage have had even a vague idea of what
they are fitted to do, or even what they wished to do. Strange to say,
this lack of definite knowledge as to vocation holds true of those who
have just graduated from college or university. Many a college graduate
has said to us: "Why, I shall teach for a few years until I have fully
made up my mind just what I wish to do. Then I shall take my post-graduate
course in preparation for my life work." Even so late a decision as this
often proves unsatisfactory.
IGNORANCE AND PURPOSELESSNESS
The causes for uncertainty as to work are many and varied. And yet all the
many causes can be traced to two fundamental deficiencies in human nature
which are but poorly supplied in our traditional systems of training and
education. The first of these is, of course, ignorance--ignorance of self,
ignorance of work, ignorance on the part of parents, teachers, and other
advisors; ignorance on the part of employers. As a race, we do not know
human nature; we do not know how to determine, in advance of actual,
painful and costly experience, the aptitudes of any individual. We blunder
a good deal even in trying to learn from experience. We do not know work;
we do not know its requirements, its conditions, its opportunities, its
emoluments. And so, in our ignorance, we go astray; we lead others astray.
We neglect important and vital factors in human success and happiness
because we do not know how important and how vital they are. Our ignorance
of their importance is due to our ignorance of human nature and of work.
A second cause for our uncertainty lies in the almost universal human
habit of purposelessness. Drifting, not steering, is the way of nearly all
lives. It is hard mental work to plan, to consider, to study, to analyze;
in short, to think. Someone has said that the average man would rather lie
down and die than to take the trouble really to think. It is easier to
await the knock of opportunity than to study her ways and then go out and
capture her. She treads paths which may be known. She has a schedule which
may be learned. She may thus be met as certainly as by appointment. Those
who await her knock at the door may be far from where she passes.
We in America, especially, place altogether too high a value on our
ingeniousness, our resourcefulness. We therefore put off the evil day. We
say to ourselves: "There is plenty of time. I'll manage somehow or other
when the time comes for action." We are rather proud of our ability to
meet emergencies. So we do not plan and take precautions, that emergencies
may not arise. It is too easy to drift through school and college, taking
the traditional, conventional studies that others take, following the
lines of least resistance, electing "snap courses," going with the crowd.
It is too easy to take the attitude: "First I will get my education and
develop myself, and then I will know better what I am fitted to do for a
life work." And so we drift, driven by the winds of circumstance, tossed
about by the waves of tradition and custom. Eventually, most men find they
must be satisfied with "any port in a storm." Sailors who select a port
because they are driven to it have scarcely one chance in a thousand of
dropping anchor in the right one.
In our ignorance, we do not know how fatal to success and happiness is
this lack of purpose. We fail to impress it upon our youth. And, when one
demands chart and compass, we cannot supply them. No wonder belief in
luck, fate, stars, or a meddling, unreasonable Providence is almost
universal!
Ignorance and lack of definite purpose, the two prime causes of misfits,
have many different ways of bungling people into the wrong job and keeping
them there.
IMMATURE JUDGMENT
The first of these is immaturity of judgment on the part of young people.
There is a popular fallacy that the thing which a young man or a young
woman wants most to do must be the thing for which he or she is
preeminently fitted. "Let him follow his bent," say some advisors, "and he
will find his niche." This does not happen often. The average young man is
immature. His tastes are not formed. He is undeveloped. His very best
talents may have never been discovered by himself or others. It is well
known to those who study children that a boy's earliest ambitions are to
do something he thinks spectacular and romantic. Boys long to be cab
drivers, locomotive engineers, policemen, cowboys, soldiers and aviators.
A little nephew of ours said he wanted to be a ditch-digger. Asked why, he
said: "So I can wear dirty clothes, smoke a pipe, and spit tobacco juice
in the street." The little fellow is really endowed with an inheritance of
great natural refinement and a splendid intellect. As he grows older, his
ideals will change and he will discover there is much to ditch-digging
besides wearing dirty clothes, smoking a pipe, and expectorating on the
public highways. He will also learn that there are things in life far more
desirable than these glorious privileges. Of course, these are mere boyish
exuberances, and most people do not take them seriously. On the other
hand, they illustrate the unwisdom of trusting to the unguided preferences
of a youthful mind. The average young man of twenty is only a little more
mature than a boy of ten. He still lacks experience and balance.
Those of us who have passed the two-score mark well know how tastes
change, judgments grow more mature, ideas develop, and experience softens,
ripens or hardens sentiment as the years go by. It is unquestionably true
that if children were given full opportunity to develop their tastes and
to express themselves in various ways and then given freedom of choice of
their vocations, they would choose more wisely than they do under
ignorant, prejudiced, or mistaken judgments of parent or teacher. Yet the
tragedy of thousands of lives shows how unscientific it is to leave the
choice of vocation to the unguided instincts of an immature mind.
INFLUENCE OF ASSOCIATION
Boys and girls often choose their careers because some popular friend or
associate exerts an undue influence upon them. George is going to be a
doctor. Therefore Joseph decides he, too, will be a doctor. Mary looks
forward to being a teacher. Mary is the very intimate chum of Josephine.
Then Josephine decides, also, that she is going to be a teacher. We knew
one earnest and popular young man in college who persuaded about three
dozen of his associates to join him in preparation for the foreign mission
field. In one class in college a fad caused several young men to lose good
opportunities because they decided to take up the practice of medicine. In
one high school class, several young men became railroad employees because
the most popular of their number yearned to drive a locomotive. And this
enterprising youth, with parental guidance and assistance, became a
lawyer.
POOR JUDGMENT OF PARENTS
Parental bad judgment is one of the most frequent causes of misfits. Even
when parents are sincere and try to be wise, choice of a child's life work
is very difficult for them. In the first place, they either underestimate
or overestimate their children. What parent, worthy of the high privilege,
can be absolutely impartial in judging the talents of his child? Arthur
Brisbane says that Nature makes every baby look like a genius in his
mother's eyes, so that she will gladly sacrifice her life, if necessary,
for her child. It may be a wise provision, but it does not tend to make
parents reliable guides to vocations for their offspring.
Then, many parents do not know work. They do not understand the demands of
the different professions. Their point of view is narrowed by their own
experiences, which have been, perhaps too harsh, perhaps too easy. Many
parents have a narrow, selfish, rather jealous feeling that their children
cannot be any more intelligent than they are. "The old farm was good
enough for me; it is good enough for my son"; "the old business was good
enough for me; it is good enough for my son." This is the attitude. This
is why many parents either refuse their children the advantages of an
education and insist upon their going to work at an early age, or compel
them to take a hated schooling.
On the other hand, there are parents who consider their children
prodigies, geniuses, intended to occupy some great and magnificent
position in the world. Most frequently they hold their judgment entirely
apart from any real talents on the part of the child. Few human woes are
more bitter than the disappointment and heartache of both parent and son
when a young man who might have been a successful and happy farmer or
merchant fails utterly as an artist or writer.
Parents often persuade their children to enter vocations upon the
flimsiest possible pretexts. Almost every child takes a pencil and tries
to draw, yet there are many parents who spend thousands of dollars in
trying to make great artists of children who have only the most mediocre
artistic ability. Mere purposeless drawing of faces and figures is an
entirely different thing from the drudgery necessary to become a great
artist. The mere writing of little essays and compositions is quite a
different thing from the long, hard training necessary to become a writer
of any acceptability. Merely because a child finds it easier to dawdle
away the hours with a pencil or a brush than to go into the harvest field
or into the kitchen is not a good reason for supposing that this
preference is an indication of either talent or genius.
A parent's judgment of the requirements of a profession is oftentimes
most amusingly erroneous. We remember a father who told us that he was
quite certain that his son was born to be a ruler of men. When we asked
why, he told us in all seriousness that from early childhood his boy's
blood boiled with indignation against people who had committed indignities
upon kings and princes. Of course, in one sense of the word, this parent
was insane, and yet his bad judgment was scarcely more ridiculous than
that of many other parents. We have met parents who seemed to think that
success in the practice of law depended wholly upon the ability to make
speeches. We have seen other parents who thought that success in banking
depended upon the ability to count money and hold on to it. Even
intelligent people have the false idea that an architect needs only to be
a good draughtsman. The number of people who imagine that success in
business is won by shrewdness and sharp practice is very large.
PARENTAL PREJUDICES
Parents are often influenced by the most irrelevant of prejudices in
counseling their children as to vocation. A man who has had an unfortunate
experience with a lawyer is very likely to oppose strenuously any move on
the part of his son to study and practice law. Many practical men have
intense prejudices against art, music, literature, and other such
professions for their sons. The number of parents who are prejudiced
against a college education is legion. On the other hand, there are a
goodly number of men who are prejudiced against any vocation for their
sons which does not involve a college education.
Many parents who have worked hard and toiled unremittingly at any
particular profession oftentimes feel that they want their children to do
something easier, something requiring less drudgery, and so bitterly
oppose their following in their fathers' footsteps. On the other hand,
many fathers are domineering in their determination that their sons shall
follow the same vocation in which they made their success.
Parents are often prejudiced in favor of vocations followed by dear
friends or by men whom they greatly admire. A successful lawyer, preacher,
engineer, or business man will influence the choice of vocations for the
children of many of his admiring friends and acquaintances.
Multitudes of parents have foolish prejudices against any kind of work
which soils the hands or clothing--even against the dinner-pail. On the
other hand, hard-fisted parents may have prejudices against any vocation
which keeps the hands soft and white, and the clothing clean and fine.
Thus, in many ways do the prejudices of parents, based upon ignorance,
work tragedy in the lives of children. Either through a sense of duty and
loyalty or because they have not sufficient solid masonry in their
backbones, children follow the wishes of their parents and many all but
ruin their lives as a result.
"THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS"
One of the most disastrous prejudices upon the part of parents is that in
favor of what are called "the learned professions." To make a lawyer, a
physician, or a minister of one's son is held to be the highest ambition
on the part of large numbers of otherwise intelligent fathers and mothers.
The result of this kind of prejudice on the part of so many parents is
that the so-called learned professions are over-crowded--and overcrowded
with men and women unfitted for their tasks, both by natural inheritance
and by education and training. There follows mediocre Work, poor service,
low pay, poverty, disease, and misery.
FAMILY TRADITIONS
There are traditions in some families which carry their curse along with
them down through the generations. There are families of preachers,
families of soldiers, families of lawyers, families of physicians,
families of teachers. Many a young man who would have otherwise been a
success in the world has toiled along at a poor, dying rate, trying to
live up to the family tradition and make a success of himself as a
teacher, or lawyer, when he ought to have been a mechanic, an actor, or a
banker.
Another form of parental prejudice is a father's desire to have his son
become a success in the vocation which he himself longed to enter, but
could not. "My father is a successful business man," said a young man to
us not long ago. "When he was a young man he wanted to enter law school
and practice law, but because of lack of funds and because he had to
support his widowed mother's family, he did not have the opportunity. All
his life he has regretted that he was unable to realize his ambition. From
my earliest years he has talked to me about becoming a great lawyer; he
spent thousands of dollars in sending me through high school, college and
law school; he has given me years of post-graduate work in law. I have now
been trying to practice law for two years and have made a complete failure
of it. Yet, so intense is his desire that I shall realize his ambition,
that he is willing to finance me, in the hope that, eventually, I may be
able to succeed in the practice of law. And yet I hate it. I hate it so
that it seems to me I cannot drive myself ever to enter a law office for
another day."
POOR JUDGMENT OF TEACHERS
When bad judgment and prejudice of parents do not interfere with a child's
development and his selection of a vocation, he is often turned into wrong
channels by the bad judgment of his teacher or teachers. It is natural for
many teachers to try to influence their favorite pupils to enter the
teaching profession in the same special branch to which the teachers
themselves are attached. We once knew a professor of Latin who was an
enthusiast on the subject. As the result of his influence, many of his
students became teachers of Latin. Teachers, like parents, also frequently
fail to see the indications of aptitude where it is very great.
Like parents, teachers also are oftentimes ignorant of the requirements of
work. They are frequently narrow in their training and experience, and
therefore do not understand much about practical life, practical work,
and practical requirements. Many teachers, even college professors, seem
to be obsessed with the idea that a student who learns a subject easily
will be successful in making a practical application of it. Not long ago a
student in engineering in one of our most prominent universities came to
us for consultation. He told us that his professors all agreed that he was
well fitted to succeed as an engineer. He, however, had no liking for the
profession and did not believe that he would either enjoy it or be
successful in it. Our observations confirmed his opinions. It turned out
that his instructors thought him qualified for engineering merely from the
fact that he learned easily the theoretical principles underlying the
practice.
ECONOMIC NECESSITY
Perhaps one of the most potent causes of misfits in vocation is economic
necessity. The time comes in the life of most boys when they must earn
their own living or, perhaps, help support the parental family. In such a
case, a search is made for a job. Local conditions, friendship,
associations, chance vacancies--almost any consideration but that of
personal fitness governs in the choice of the job. Once a boy is in a
vocation, he is more than likely to remain in it--or, because of
unfitness, to drift aimlessly into another, for which he is even less
adapted. An entertaining writer in the "Saturday Evening Post" has shown
how the boy who accidentally enters upon his career as a day laborer soon
finds it impossible to graduate into the ranks of skilled labor. He
remains not only a day laborer, but an occasional laborer, his periods of
work interspersed with longer and longer periods of unemployment.
Unemployment means bad food, unwholesome sanitary conditions and, worst of
all, bad mental and moral states. These are followed by disease,
incompetency, inefficiency, weakness, and, in time, the man becomes one of
the unemployed and unemployable wrecks of humanity. Crime then becomes
practically the only avenue of escape from starvation or pauperism.
Thousands of young men taking a job, no matter how they may dislike the
work, feel compelled to remain in it because it is their one hope of
income. The longer they remain in it the harder it is for them to make a
change. Sad, indeed, is the case of the boy or girl who is compelled, in
order to make a living or to help support father, mother, brothers and
sisters, to drop into the first vacancy which offers itself.
RESTLESSNESS
The restlessness of many a boy and girl results in his or her choice of an
utterly wrong vocation. Boys whose parents would be glad to see them
through college or technical school cannot wait to begin their careers.
Impatient and restless, they undertake the work which will yield quick
results rather than develop their real talents or seek opportunities for
advancement of which they are by nature capable. Over and over again those
who come to us for consultation say: "Father would have been willing to
have put me through school, but I couldn't wait; I simply had to get out
and have my own way. I have never ceased to regret it. Now I have to work
hard with my hands; with a proper education, and in my right job, I could
have used my head." The reader has doubtless heard many such stories from
friends and acquaintances. The world is full of misfits who failed of
their great opportunity because they were too restless, too impatient, to
make proper preparations for their life work. This restlessness,
unfortunately, is a characteristic of many of the most energetic, most
capable, and most intelligent young people, to whom an education would be
worth much, to whom proper training and preparation would bring unusual
self-development. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that the
young man or young woman and his or her parents or guardian should be
especially cautious when there is this feeling of intense eagerness to
begin work.
VERSATILITY
Perhaps one of the most difficult causes of misfits to overcome is
versatility. He who can do many things well seems always to have great
difficulty in fixing upon any one thing and doing that supremely well. The
versatile man is usually fond of variety, changeable, fickle; he loves to
have many irons in the fire; he likes to turn from one kind of work to
another. It is his great failing that he seldom sticks at any one thing
long enough to make a marked success of it. Because of his great
versatility, too, he is often a serious problem, even for those who can
study his case scientifically. It is difficult to give him counsel and it
is even more difficult for him to give heed to that counsel when it has
been given. The one hope of the exceedingly versatile individual is to
find for himself some vocation which has within it an opportunity for the
exercise of many different kinds of talents, and for turning quickly from
one kind of work to another. Routine, monotony, detail work, and work
which is confining in its character and presents a continual sameness of
environment, should be avoided by this type of individual.
MEDIOCRITY AND UNGUESSED TALENTS
The inability to do any one thing particularly well is, in its way, as
serious a handicap in the selection of a vocation as great versatility.
One who can do nothing well finds it just as hard to decide upon a
vocation as one who can do everything well. Perhaps the large majority of
those who come to us for consultation do so because they feel that they
have no particular talent. Oftentimes this is the case. But frequently
there are undeniable talents which have simply never been discovered and
never developed. Even in the case of those with no particular talent,
there is always some combination of aptitudes, characteristics,
disposition, and other circumstances which makes one particular vocation
far more desirable than any other. It is most important that the
individual with only a moderate inheritance of intelligence and ability
should learn to invest his little in the most profitable manner possible.
Those who escape wrong choice of vocation on account of their own bad
judgment and errors in selection; who are not turned aside into the wrong
path by the bad judgment, prejudices, and other errors of parents; who
escape from the clutches of sincere and well-meaning, but unwise,
teachers; who are not thrown into the nearest possible vacancies by
economic necessity; who do not fall short of their full opportunities
because of restlessness; who do not have their problems complicated by too
great versatility or too little ability, still have many a rock and shoal
to avoid.
BLUNDERS OF EMPLOYERS
One very frequent cause of misfits in vocation is the bad judgment of
employers. This bad judgment, like that of parents and teachers, arises
from ignorance--ignorance of human nature, of the particular individual,
and, strange to say, of the requirements of the work to be done. Whole
volumes could be written on the bad judgment of employers in selecting,
assigning, and handling their employees. This, however, is not the place
for them. Neither is this the place for the discussion of the remedies to
be applied.
Even after the young man has entered a vocation and found that he does not
fit in it, there is plenty of opportunity for him to make a change if he
is made of the right stuff and can secure the right kind of counsel and
guidance. But this "IF" is a tremendously big one.
Many causes--both inside and outside of himself--tend to prevent the
average man from changing from a vocation for which he is not fit to one
in which he is fit. Perhaps a brief consideration of some of these factors
in the problem may be of assistance to you.
SOCIAL AMBITION
One reason for continuing in the wrong vocation is social ambition.
Rightly or wrongly--probably wrongly--there are certain vocations which
entitle one to social recognition. There are others which seem, at least,
to make it difficult for one to secure social recognition. Social
ambition, therefore, causes many a man to cling desperately to the
outskirts of some profession for which he is unfitted, in the everlasting
hope of making a success of it and thus winning the social recognition
which is his supreme desire.
Poor, short-sighted, and even blind, victims of their own folly!
They do not see that any work which is human service is honorable. They
miss the big truth that the man who delivers better goods or renders
better service than other men is not only entitled to profit, but also
has, by divine right, unassailable social standing.
LAZINESS
One of the most potent causes of failure is laziness. And the worst form
of the malady is mental laziness. Once a man is in any line of work, he
simply remains there by following the lines of least resistance. It
requires, in the first place, hard mental effort to decide upon a new line
of work. It requires analysis of work, analysis of one's self, of
conditions, and of environment, in order to make an intelligent and worthy
change. Not only this, but an advantageous change in vocation usually
involves additional study, additional training, hard, grinding work in
preparation for the new task. And it is altogether too easy for the lazy
man to drift along, mediocre and obscure, in some vocation for which he is
poorly fitted than to go through the grueling, hard work of preparing
himself for one in which he will find an opportunity for the use and
development of his highest and best talents.
LACK OF OPPORTUNITY
Many men do not change their vocations, when they find that they are
misfits, because of lack of opportunity. There may be no real chance for
them in the locality where they live and conditions may make it almost
impossible for them to leave. Of course, the strong, courageous soul can
_make_ its own opportunities. Theoretically, perhaps, everyone can create
circumstances. But, in real life, there are comparatively few strong,
courageous souls--few who can mould conditions to their will. Probably,
however, the average man could do much more than he does to improve his
opportunities were it not for inertia, lack of self-confidence, and lack
of courage, all of which he could overcome if he would.
It is oftentimes the case that the man who desires to make a change feels
that the only work which would appeal to him is in a profession or trade
already overcrowded. This may be true in the locality where he lives, but
there is always room for every competent man in any truly useful kind of
work. For the man who is well qualified, by natural aptitudes and
training, no profession is overcrowded.
LACK OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Many men of intelligence, who, perhaps, know what their calling should be,
are compelled to continue in work which is uncongenial and for which they
are poorly fitted because of their lack of education and training.
Hundreds of men and women come to us, only to find that they have started
in the wrong work and have remained in it so long that a change to their
true vocation is practically impossible. They have assumed
responsibilities which they cannot shirk. The education and training
needed would take too long and would cost too much. Yet many have toiled
away at night and in odd moments on correspondence courses or in night
schools, and have thus, finally, won their way to their rightful places in
the work of the world. But at what a cost!
It is of the highest importance that every individual should learn as
early as possible in life what career he is best fitted to undertake.
Every year spent in mistaken preparation or uncongenial employment makes
proper training more expensive and more difficult. There are many arts
which, perhaps, cannot be learned properly after one has reached maturity.
It is said that no one has ever become a great violinist who did not begin
his study of the instrument before the age of twelve. However that may be,
psychologists and anatomists agree in informing us that the brain of a
human being is exceedingly plastic in childhood, and that it gradually
grows more and more impervious to impressions and changes as the
individual matures. Sad, indeed, is the case, therefore, of the individual
who waits to learn what his vocational fitness is until he is fully mature
and is, perhaps, loaded up with the cares and responsibilities of a
family, and cannot take either the time or the money to secure an
education which his natural aptitude and his opportunities demand.
DEFICIENT SELF-CONFIDENCE
Many men remain in uncongenial occupations because they lack confidence in
themselves. This is distressingly common. Everywhere we find men and women
occupying humble positions, doing some obscure work, perhaps actually
frittering away their time upon trifles and mere details, doing something
which does not require accuracy, care, responsibility, or talent, merely
for fear they may not be able to succeed in a career for which they are
eminently fitted.
On one occasion a young man of the most undoubted dramatic talent and
oratorical ability sought us for counsel. "I have always felt," he said,
"a strong inner urge, sometimes almost irresistible, to go upon the
platform or the stage. But, because I have lacked confidence in myself, I
have always, at the last moment, drawn back. The result is that to-day I
am dissatisfied and unhappy in the work I am doing. I do it poorly. I long
constantly for an opportunity to express myself in public. Years are going
by, I have not developed my talent as I should, and I am beginning to feel
that my case is hopeless." This lack of self-confidence is more common by
far than many people would imagine. Arthur Frederick Sheldon has said:
"Most men accomplish too little because they attempt too little." Our
observations incline us to believe that this is the truth. Taking humanity
as a whole, far more men fail because they try to do too little than
because they try to do too much. Humanity is a great mine of undiscovered
and undeveloped talents. It follows that we fall far short of our best
because we do not expect and demand enough of ourselves.
CONSERVATISM
A man came to us for consultation in regard to his vocation. Just why he
had come, it afterward turned out, it was hard to see. Perhaps he only
wanted to settle matters in his own mind without taking definite action
upon them. He was engaged in mercantile business, a business left to him
by his father. He hated it. After a careful analysis, we informed him that
he had undoubted scientific talents, and that, with training, he could
make a name for himself in research and discovery. He was overjoyed at
this information, but he manifested no disposition to change his vocation.
He said: "Much as I dislike the mercantile business, I hate to change. A
change will mean selling out, upsetting my whole mode of life and
activity, removing into a different community, beginning a new life in
many of its phases. I cannot look forward to such a complete revolution
with any degree of pleasure, so I guess I will have to keep along in the
old store, much as I would like to devote the rest of my life to
test-tubes, crucibles, and scales."
There are many such men. Change is more hateful to them than unloved work.
They fall into grooves and ruts. They would rather continue in their
well-worn ways than to go through the mental anguish of breaking old ties,
remaking methods of life and work, moving away from friends and relatives,
and otherwise changing environment, conditions, and employment.
LACK OF COURAGE
Many men have self-confidence and yet lack courage. That may seem to be a
paradoxical statement, but if the reader will study carefully some of the
men he knows, he will understand that this is the truth. Men may have
plenty of confidence in themselves, but they may lack the courage to face
difficulties, to overcome obstacles, to meet hard conditions, to pass
through disagreeable experiences. Such are the men who lack the
initiative, the push, the aggressiveness, to do as well as they know how,
to do as much as they can, to undertake the high achievement for which
they have the ability. The cases of such men would be hopeless were it not
for the fact that some powerful incentive, like an emergency or necessity,
some tremendous enthusiasm, some strong determination, some deep
conviction, urges them on to the expression of the fulness of their
powers. Lacking even any of these, it is possible for the man who lacks
courage to develop it.
Courage is developed by doing courageous acts. The man who feels that he
lacks courage, who knows that he needs to forget his fears and his
anxieties, has half won his battle. Knowing his deficiencies, he can by
the very power of his will compel himself to courageous words and acts,
thus increasing and developing his courage and, as a result, his
efficiency.
LACK OF AMBITION
Finally, people do not undertake work in their proper vocations because of
a lack of ambition. This is, indeed, a fundamental deficiency. Perhaps it
underlies many of those we have already described. Certain it is that we
usually obtain what we most earnestly and ardently desire. Someone has
said that when a man knows definitely and in detail just exactly what he
desires, he is halfway toward attainment. Now, a man does not know
definitely and in detail what he wants unless he wants it so intensely
that it is always in his mind; he thinks about it, dreams of it, and
paints mental pictures of himself enjoying it; perhaps spends hours in
working out the detail of it. When a man has an ambition which drives him
on to this kind of mental exercise, he usually has one which overcomes his
inertia, burns out his laziness, triumphs over his lack of confidence in
himself, urges him out of grooves and ruts, and enables him to overcome
deficiencies in education and training, is an incentive to him for the
creating of opportunities where none exist, gives him courage for
anything, and kindles ever afresh his enthusiasm and determination. There
is no obstacle so great that it will not dissolve and vanish away into
thin air in the heat of such an overwhelming desire and ambition as this.
We need to remind ourselves, however, that even the most ardent ambition
goes astray unless it is guided by accurate knowledge. Many a man has
attacked his problem with great courage and high ambition, only to meet
defeat because, through lack of knowledge, he has chosen a career for
which he was unfitted.
These, then, are some of the reasons people go into and remain in
vocations where they do not fit. They are the reasons, also, why so many
men are failures or near-failures. Any man is a failure in just the degree
in which he falls short of developing and using his best and highest
talents and powers.
William James, the psychologist, has said that most men use only a very
small percentage of their real abilities. Harrington Emerson, efficiency
engineer, says that the average man is only twenty-five per cent efficient
and that his inefficiency is due to unfitness for the work he is trying to
do. Students of economics say that only ten per cent of all men are truly
successful. In this chapter we have presented many of the reasons for the
misfit and failure. Some of them are chargeable to parents, teachers, and
employers. But the most serious belong rightfully at the door of the
individual himself. "The fault, dear Brutus," says Cassius, "is not in our
stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."
It is highly desirable that parents, teachers, and other guides and
advisors of the young should fully inform themselves about human nature
and about work. They ought to rid their minds of prejudice and thus free
themselves from unwise tradition and useless conventionality. Above all,
they need to arouse themselves to the vital importance of ideals--of a
clear, definite purpose, based upon accurate knowledge and sound
judgment--in other words, upon common sense. This is the vocational
problem.
FACTORS OF THE VOCATIONAL PROBLEM
The vocational problem consists, first, of the need of accurate vocational
analysis; second, of the need of wise vocational counsel; third, of the
need of adequate vocational training; fourth, of the need of correct
vocational placement.
It is obvious that the vocational problem cannot be adequately solved by
dealing with pupils or clients in groups or classes. It is a definite,
specific, and individual problem. Group study is interesting and
instructive, but, alone, does not give sufficient knowledge of individual
peculiarities and aptitudes. It is obvious from the foregoing analysis of
the vocational problem that it is practically identical at all points with
the problem of scientific employment. Just as the highest efficiency of
the employment department depends upon accurate analysis of the job and of
the man, so the highest usefulness of the vocational bureau or vocational
counsellor depends upon complete and exact knowledge of the requirements
in different lines of endeavor, and the ability to analyze human nature
accurately. It is obvious that wise counsel cannot be given, adequate
training cannot be prescribed, and correct placement is impossible until
these analyses have been properly made.
The child or adult of unusual ability, with well-marked inclinations and
strong in the fundamentals of character, is never difficult to analyze,
counsel, train, or place. If given an opportunity to gain knowledge, and
freedom in the exercise of choice, he will almost surely gravitate into
his natural line of work. He is not the real problem of the vocational
expert. But the vast majority of children are average, or even mediocre.
They show little inclination toward any study or any work. They have
weaknesses of character that will inevitably handicap them, no matter what
vocation they enter. They are the real problem. There is another class,
almost equally distressing. They are the people who are brilliant, who
learn easily, and who are so adaptable that they can turn their hands to
almost anything. They are usually so unstable in temperament that it is
difficult for them to persist in any one kind of endeavor long enough to
score a success.
METHODS OF ANALYSIS IN USE
The need, in dealing with these problems, for some more reliable guide
than the young person's inclinations and preferences has deeply impressed
itself upon those engaged in vocational study and vocational work. They
are earnestly seeking to find some better way. To this end, we have the
questionaire, by which is brought out between the lines, as it were, the
particular aptitudes and disposition of the subject. And this method is
not without its advantages. We have also psychological tests. These are of
fascinating interest and have yielded some valuable results. Some
vocational workers use the psychological tests and some do not. Even those
who are most enthusiastic for them admit that they are complicated, that
they require expensive apparatus and specially trained examiners, and that
even the best results obtainable cover a very narrow field in the
character and aptitudes of the subject.
UNIFORM METHOD NEEDED
The present need is for some uniform, readily applicable, inexpensive, and
comprehensive method of analysis. The advantages of such a method are
immediately apparent. First, its uniformity would permit the making of
records for comparison, covering a very wide range of subjects,
environment, and vocations. Second, even the simplest classifications,
which are readily learned and easily applied by the inexpert, would yield
tangible and measurable results and would be far better than the present
unstandardized and wholly unscientific methods. Third, were such a uniform
method adopted and made a part of the vocational work of our institutions;
were uniform records to be made and wisely used, we should soon have a
body of useful knowledge on this subject. Fourth, as the result of the
application of such a uniform method, text books and charts could be
prepared which would form the basis of popular education in vocational
guidance.
But this book will find its way into the hands of many whose own
vocational problems cry out for solution. Such need first to know
themselves, to know their aptitudes and talents, whether developed or
undeveloped. They need to study vocations--to know everything about the
kinds of work they might do, from their requirements to their
possibilities twenty, thirty, or forty years in the future. Finally, they
need the courage, self-confidence, industry, progressiveness, and ambition
to throw off the shackles of circumstance and, in the light of scientific
truth, to press forward to the achievement, success, fulness of life, and
happiness possible through development and use of all their powers.